The line between “sent in” and “heard back” has started to stretch into something else entirely. For millions of people trying to change their immigration status, it’s not just waiting—it’s waiting without confirmation.
What USCIS delay looks like on the ground
In June 2025, people lined up outside the Los Angeles Federal Building, where offices for U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services sit under the same roof.
The scene is familiar in the way bureaucratic routines become familiar—steady footsteps, paper in folders, a kind of low, constant worry.
The federal building doesn’t smell like anything dramatic, but you can still feel the tension in the air.
According to an analysis by Misryoum newsroom, millions of immigrants are stuck in legal limbo while waiting for USCIS to process applications under the second Trump administration.
Since the start of last year, Misryoum reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken longer and longer to process applications, leaving more people waiting months without confirmation their application was received, let alone reviewed.
Misryoum newsroom review of data from U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)—the DHS agency that processes and approves immigration applications—shows that nearly 12 million applications for immigration services, including applying for citizenship, a work permit or other permission to live in the U.S., await a decision.
That number is growing as the backlog ballooned, with a jump in the first three months of the second Trump administration.
Misryoum editorial desk noted that the slowdown illustrates one lever of the administration’s overall strategy to slow down legal migration.
Immigrants aren’t just slowed down; they’re struggling to get the government to acknowledge it received their applications, which leaves people at greater risk of being deported.
And if you can’t prove you applied—at least not with a receipt—everything downstream gets shakier.
Frontlog cases: “submitted” but not even opened
Among the pending requests, Misryoum reports that the 11.6 million applications in the “backlog” include forms to become a citizen, acquire a green card, work or seek asylum.
There are also 247,974 applications in what USCIS calls the “frontlog,” tracked separately.
Those are applications, likely sent by mail, that have been submitted but the agency has not physically opened and assigned a category.
Misryoum analysis indicates the slowdown has come as USCIS has taken a tougher approach toward policing immigration laws in the last year.
The administration says slower reviews—or stopping some applications entirely—is necessary for national security purposes.
Matthew Tragesser, spokesman for USCIS, said the administration has implemented “screening and vetting processes” that the previous administration overlooked.
In a statement, Tragesser said the prior approach prioritized “rubber-stamping naturalization applications with minimal vetting,” and he listed changes such as tougher naturalization tests, social media screenings and visits to applicants’ neighborhoods, meant “to ensure applicants demonstrate good moral character and an attachment to the Constitution.
USCIS will not take shortcuts in the adjudications process.”
Even with that explanation, the effects are landing in legal offices and on clients’ phones.
Luis Cortes Romero, an immigration attorney in Seattle, described it as a tense, bracing period for many clients.
He said one of his clients was denied an interview for his green card in January due to a paperwork delay—after having already waited a year—and it has yet to be rescheduled.
Cortes Romero also said that in “frontlog” situations, applications may not be started at all.
“Our clients are facing immediate anxiety. The conversations we’re having with clients are like, ‘Did you really send it?’” Cortes Romero said, adding that the agency doesn’t confirm it received these applications until they are opened.
The numbers also point to a shift over time.
Misryoum newsroom reported that pending applications include all cases submitted in a given category, from any period in time, that have not been approved or denied.
That number grew steadily over the last decade, more than doubling, according to Misryoum review of data starting from October 2016.
But the backlog jumped by 2 million in the first year of the second Trump administration—more than the increase in all four years of President Trump’s first term.
Some argue this is a sign the system needs stricter screening.
Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, said Misryoum reports that “we are beginning to see the manifestation of data that proves that this administration is slow-walking or even denying the opportunity for these people to adjust.” Meanwhile, Elizabeth Jacobs of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports restricting immigration, said concerns remain about both high backlogs for the government and immigrants.
She warned in comments relayed by Misryoum that the longer someone has a pending application, the more they could be incurring unlawful presence.
Proponents of the administration’s approach also framed the backlog as evidence the system isn’t manageable.
Brandy Perez Carbaugh, former research associate at the Border Security and Immigration Center of the Heritage Foundation, said the 11 million pending applications show the immigration system is not manageable and that the agency should pause taking in more applications until backlogs decrease.
The “frontlog” part of the story can be especially difficult for lawyers because mail filings still dominate for many categories.
Cortes Romero said the agency pivoted to some electronic filings during the COVID-19 pandemic but is behind on upgrades that could speed acknowledgment of receipt.
Renata Castro, an immigration attorney with clients around the country, said immigrants may have to wait up to eight months before USCIS confirms it got their application.
She said some clients have been placed in removal proceedings, and in those cases an immigration judge may need documents showing a pending application—documents the government may not be able to provide quickly.
Misryoum reports that Felicia Escobar Carrillo, former USCIS chief of staff under the Biden administration, said USCIS began publicly tracking the number of applications submitted—but not categorized—in 2023.
According to Misryoum newsroom reporting, quarterly data shows the number of applications in the frontlog was zero in 2023, before jumping to 77,291 by the end of March 2024, then going back to zero in the following three quarters.
But once Trump came back into office, Misryoum reports the number jumped to 34,028 in the first three months, and by the end of September 2025 USCIS reported 247,974 cases in the frontlog.
Castro said it has been overwhelming, and that it’s not only legal staff feeling it.
“This has impacted my practice, my mental health, my clients, my clients’ mental health,” she said.
“They’re just overwhelmed, tired and frazzled from the uncertainty.” And you can see why the wait starts to feel personal, even before anyone hears a decision—though whether it’s the same wait for everyone, well, that part is… complicated.
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